


Marian Malone, Ace Detective

by The_Bisexy_Whovian_Werewolf



Category: Original Story
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-02
Updated: 2016-09-02
Packaged: 2018-08-12 12:35:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7934779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Bisexy_Whovian_Werewolf/pseuds/The_Bisexy_Whovian_Werewolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Marian Malone is only 13, but she's seen a lot. Crime, punishment, and corruption are everywhere in NYC. When an old enemy comes to her with a major case, she dare not refuse it. But will she catch the culprit, and find the victim… alive?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Marian Malone, Ace Detective

**Author's Note:**

> Rated T for romantic relationships and language. Despite what the tags say, this is an INCOMPLETE story

 

 It was late night when I got the call. For some reason, these cases never begin at the crack of dawn.  
“Marion, you’ve gotta help me”, a voice crackled through my cellphone. It was a sweet, rich-sounding female voice. Not my usual client, but I don’t discriminate.  
“Who are you? And how did you get this number?”, I questioned.  
“Oh please, everyone knows who you are. The break in at Sal’s candy shop? The pet store kidnapping? The fieldtrip theft? Maybe you haven’t noticed, but you have quite a reputation”.  
“Glad to see I have fans. But you didn’t answer my question. Who the hell are you?”.  
The voice sighed, as if I should have recognized her.  
“Kaitlyn Lark, as in Charlie Lark’s daughter”. My eyes went wide, but I didn’t let her hear any surprise in my speech.  
“Oh, I see. If the mayor’s daughter is asking for me, than I’ve either been selected for the best citizen award, or you want to chew me out. And neither of those options sounds particularly exciting”.  
“Cut the comedy, Marion. As much as I condemn your methods, that’s not the reason I’m calling. Meet me at the station in an hour. The phone lines might be bugged and I can’t let anyone else hear what I need to tell you”.  
I rubbed my forehead. If Kaitlyn Lark was involved, I was in for one hell of a headache. “Alright, I’ll meet you there. One hour, no sooner or later”. I was about to hang up but then put the phone back to my ear.  
“Kaitlyn?”.  
“Yes?”.  
“You don’t have to mention your father’s name all the time. You’re just as famous as me”, I told her.  
She scoffed.  
“Just because you’ve lost faith in adults, doesn’t mean everyone has”.  
I pushed the hangup button and set the phone on my desk. I shuffled downstairs to the fridge and poured myself a stiff drink. Italian blood orange, finest stuff my money could buy. I hoped that I had enough to buy another bottle, because if things went the way I thought they were going to go, God knows I would be needing a lot more of the stuff. Kaitlyn was right about one thing: I had a reputation, even if I forgot about it sometimes. Ever since I learned to walk and talk I had a knack for the detective business. Always asking questions, always discovering things, always poking my head in other people’s business. I won't lie, it got me into trouble more often than not. So one day, I decided that instead of getting in trouble, I'd get other people out of trouble. And thus Marian Malone, ace detective was born. There were two things everyone knew about me: I worked for cheap, and I worked anonymously. Once I cracked a case, I'd call in to the police, but I'd never say who I was or how I got the info. Why? It was like Encyclopedia Brown; if I told any adult that the person solving all these crimes chewed bubblegum and didn't get along with her math teacher, I would've been laughed away. So why even bother? I couldn't even tell my own parents, love me though they did.  
“Stop making up stories Marion and do your homework”, my mother would reply in exasperation. Besides, if they knew, they'd make me stop immediately.  
“It's too dangerous to be running around alone”, my dad would argue. So anonymous I remained, at least to those older than eighteen.

I showed up at the station exactly one hour after Kaitlyn and I had finished our conversation. I left the house early to account for the traffic. When I arrived, she was there, in a white fur stole with pearls around her neck. She let her long cornrows hang over her shoulder, and her makeup perfectly complemented her dark skin tone. When she saw me in my raggedy trenchcoat and fedora, her expression turned to one of disgust. Though she never said so, any kid with an ounce of street smarts knew that Kaitlyn Lark wouldn’t be caught dead talking to anyone who didn’t own something made from a precious metal. Sure, her daddy would talk about “projects to benefit the less fortunate”, but setting up welfare programs didn’t actually require interacting with the less fortunate. If she was actually taking time to see me, even in private, then this case had to be a big one.  
“Marion Malone”, she said extending her hand. I didn’t take it.  
“Hello Kaitlyn. I’d say it’s an honor, but you’d probably have your dad call the cops to arrest me for false statements”. She sighed.  
“Look, I’m not going to pretend we’re friends or anything. But we’re going to have to cooperate if this thing is going to be solved”, she said, annoyed that I wasn’t bowing to her like everyone else did.  
“You still haven’t told me what this “thing” is”, I countered.  
She reached into her pocket and pulled out some photos. She shoved them towards me, and I snatched them from her. The photos showed a dark, handsome boy holding hands with a girl who looked like a barbie doll. They both looked to be about my age, thirteen. To the grownup eye, the photo looked completely innocent. But in the kid world, just holding hands could mean a lot. And the photos got racier from there. One showed the couple swimming, with the girl in a very small bikini. The raciest one showed the two making out on a beach, _passionately_. I admit that these weren’t the kind of photos I’d want my teacher to see, but there was no crime here. I handed the photos back to Kaitlyn. She could see the look of confusion on my face.  
“The girl is Jennifer Brannigan, the boy is Ash Friar. Jennifer lives on the Upper East Side, Ash lives in Harlem, so I know you don't know either of them. As you can see, they’ve been going out. Only problem is, Jennifer is already seeing someone”.  
She handed me another picture. This time, I recognized the face.  
“That's the guy she was originally dating, Joe Albini. I’m sure you're familiar with him. He's the one who took the pictures”.  
Joe Albini, as in “most likely to be in the mob” Albini. He and his gang were often more organized than the real mob, which is why they were almost never caught. They were the leaders of my school, and if they told you to do something, you did it or else. If this case had anything to do with him, it was going to be tough. I had questions for Kaitlyn already.  
“Where'd you get these?”.  
“From Joe himself. When Kaitlyn found out about these, she was torn. Joe was going to blackmail her. So, I got myself invited to one of Joe’s parties, and when he wasn't looking I snatched them. He still doesn't know it was me”.  
Like I said, Joe was a twisted kid. I had to give it to Kaitlyn, she had guts to steal from him.  
“So what do you want me to do? You know I don't do affair cases”, I told Kaitlyn. I was angry at her for wasting my time. She took a deep breath and steadied herself.  
“Jennifer Mark was kidnapped two days ago”.                       I turned to look at her. A **kidnapping**? I'd solved petnapping cases before, but this was a person.  
“How come I never heard anything about this before?”.  
“As far as her parents know, she’s in Chicago. They transferred her to a boarding school over there. I guess they thought it was safer than this place”.  
“They thought right. Gotta love NYC. How do you know she’s been kidnapped?”.  
She handed me a note that I assumed was from the kidnappers. It had been typed, so there was no handwriting to go on. I read out loud what it said:

“Do not worry about Miss Jenny. The angel of music has her under his wing. Make no attempt to see her”.  
Ps. If you tell the police, I'll know, and I'll put you in the morgue.

I grimaced. Whoever typed the note sounded like a grade A psycho.  
“The angel of music is from Phantom of the Opera, her favorite play”, Kaitlyn explained.  
“So she either has a stalker, or the kidnapper is someone close to her”, I muttered to myself.”  
Something didn't fit with everything she had told me.  
“Hold on a minute; wouldn't the school call if Jennifer had disappeared?”, I asked.  
“That's just it. I can't understand it Marion. You see, I did some digging of my own before I called you. I checked with the school; according to them, Marion is with them, attending classes and everything. But I know her, and she would've called or written to me or her family, and she hasn't. Obviously I can't tell any of this to the police, or even my father, and you better not either”.  
I smirked.  
“Why are you telling me then? How do you know the kidnapper isn't watching us?”. She smirked.  
“No one suspects an eighth grader of being a detective, Marion.  
“Even with my ‘reputation’?”.  
“If the kidnapper had known about you, Marion, they wouldn’t have sent the note at all. I mean, they might as well have sent the note to the police!”.  
I admit I felt a little pride knowing that she thought I was that good, but at the same time, I felt like Kaitlyn was just trying to get on my good side. Maybe she thought I’d do the case her way, the way the cops do it. But she was out of luck.  
“Alright I’ll take the case”, I decided. She nodded, and pulled something out of her pocket.  
“Find Jenny, _alive_ , and I'll pay you ten times your normal amount”. She held out a crisp Benjamin Franklin, but I pushed it away.  
“Save it. This one’s special”. I was no angel, but to accept payment on a case like this would make seem heartless. Kaitlyn put the money away before putting a have on my shoulder.  
“I know normally I tell you to go by the book, but this time I don't even care. Please just find her for god’s sake”. This was so unlike her. She was normally stuck up, looking down on those who didn't match her affluent lifestyle. But now here she was, begging and throwing $100 dollar bills around.These girls must have been good friends.  
“Just one last question”, I said looking back at her.  
“Why’d you get sent the note? Are you and Jennifer close or something?”. Upon hearing that question, her face went pale. She couldn’t look me in the eyes.  
“We have… a history”, was all she said.  
That didn’t clear things up, but it was pointless trying to get anything else out of her. I turned and walked back to the bus station that I had rode in on. I had a lot of thinking to do.

 

The next morning, my mom made me a quick breakfast of oatmeal before leaving for work. Not the fanciest of meals, but I wasn’t complaining. The fact that my mom had enough time to cook at all made both of us happy. My parents weren’t around much. They each worked two jobs, and two of those jobs included nightshift, so I guess you could say our home life wasn’t exactly like _Full House_. But I loved them, and they loved me, so we made it work. They’re the only two adults I trust. That was another thing Kaitlyn was right about: Besides my parents, I had lost faith in adults a long time ago. Teachers, business people, leaders; they think that they’re role models, that we kids should look up at them. But the truth is, they’re all just as fallible as the teenage thugs they look down on. With that philosophy, I learned how to survive the streets on my own. While eating my oatmeal, I thought about where I should go first to start my investigation. Joe Albini and I went to the same school, but it’d be hard to get anything out of him. He’d probably ask me to do him a favor, and that would probably mean doing something against the rules. When it comes to rules, I’m no upstanding citizen, but there are some lines even I don’t cross. Nevertheless, Joe seemed to be the best place to start. I donned my coat, fedora, and backpack, and headed out the door. The streets were as noisy as ever, and I had to dodge a couple of creeps staring at my legs on the way to the bus stop. Being a boy in the city is one thing, being a girl is a whole ‘nother situation. But in my thirteen years I’d learned to cope. For once, I was eager to get to school and find Joe. If I knew him, he’d probably behind the building, laughing it up with his buddies. And of course, when I finally got off the bus to check, there he was. I strolled up to him casually, hiding any trace of suspicion. His friends whistled when they saw me coming, and I ignored them.  
“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the darling detective herself”, he said grinning.  
“What can I do for you?”. He held up a box of Godiva cigars, the finest money could buy. He took one out and extended it to me. I took it, knowing full well I’d probably never even see one of them again.  
“I’ll tell you what you can do, but only if your buddies scram”. He laughed.  
“You heard the girl, get outta here you idiots”. They all left, and Joe turned to me. I took out a pencil and notebook from my bag.  
“I’m here to talk to you about Jennifer Brannigan”. He scowled, but only slightly.  
“What, that dame? We broke up last week. Something about moving to Chicago. Why? Is she looking to get back with me?”.  
I put my hand to my face. Either this kid was a really good actor, or he was really dumb. I growled and stepped closer, to make him uncomfortable.  
“Cut the crap, Joe. I know why you guys broke up. Couldn't handle her making out with that kid from Harlem, huh?”. He scoffed.  
“Oh yeah, that. Yeah I knew about that, but I didn't care. _Jenny_ broke up with _me_ ”.  
“Oh you didn't care? So I guess these don't mean anything”. I threw the photos at him. When he saw them, his expression turned to that of rage.  
“Where the hell did you get these”, he growled.  
“A little bird dropped them off at my door. Care to explain?”. No response.  
“Look, I'm not here about the pictures. I'm here about this”. I showed him the note. From his face I could tell that his heart had dropped into his stomach. He slid down the wall, shaking his head.  
“Something weird did happen about two weeks ago. I call her up and ask her if she wants to go to the movies. She said that she ‘had to go to Harlem’. She sounded really upset, like she had been crying. And I think I could hear another voice in the background. A guy’s voice”.  
I wrote this all down in my notebook, intrigued as to what really happened that night.  
“Look”, Joe said wearily.  
“I took the pictures, okay? I suspected something when she started acting weird, cancelling plans and not calling when she said would. So I followed her around, took these pictures. Was it a little messed up? Yeah, sure. Would I kidnap her? Hell no. But when she found out that I knew, she went crazy. She called me up one morning, sobbing and saying that she was going to leave me so that she and Ash ‘could be together’, like they were getting married or something. It really creeped me out”.  
“Word on the street is you were planning to blackmail her”.  
“It crossed my mind, but in the end I decided she wasn't worth the trouble. Besides, _someone_ stole the pictures from me before I got the chance to do anything with them”.  
He stood up, gritting his teeth.  
“If Jenny’s in trouble, I’ll bet anything that Ash knows something about it. I swear, if he hurts one hair on her head…”.  
He started slamming his fist into his palm, and I put my hand on his shoulder to calm him down. “Look, I’m going to find Jenny, but I need to find Ash first. Do you have any idea where he lives?”. Joe shook his head.  
“All I can say for certain is Harlem. But Jenny has a sister who might know. She said that they’re really close”.  
This was news to me. Kaitlyn hadn’t mentioned a sister at all.  
“And where might I find her?”.  
“You might try Delgado’s up on Fulton Street. Poor kid, apparently she fell off the wagon a while ago”. Delgado’s was the place where all the heavy drinkers went. You could get any kind of fizz you wanted, from Seven Up to Pepsi. If there was one kind of person I didn’t like dealing with, it was a drinker. But a job’s a job, and I had my pistol on me, so I was protected. The only thing stopping me was school, but there were so many kids, the teachers barely noticed if one or two kids slipped away. Before I left, Joe turned to me and gave me the saddest look I had ever seen. It certainly wasn’t a look you’d get from a future mob boss.  
“Marion, look. Just get Jenny home safe. Even if we’re not together, I don’t what I’d do if she was hurt… or worse”.  
This girl had a lot of admirers, but that didn't rule anyone out as the kidnapper. Somebody could be faking, or maybe one of them admired her a little too much.  
“I’ll do everything I can, I promise”, I said in a calm, quiet voice.  
And I meant it. This wasn’t just another case. Someone’s life was on the line. And if something really did happen to Jenny, it was all my fault. Right now, I needed to get to Delgado’s. But all I had was a five dollar bill for lunch, and the bus took exact change, which I was supposed to get from lunch. Then I spotted the bike rack, and I knew what I would have to do. I took a pin from my pack and started picking the lock that was keeping a big red bike on the rack. After a minute or two, I hear that satisfying click, and I mounted the vehicle. But, before I left, I snatched the pictures out of Joe’s hands. I didn't want **anyone** ever seeing these, especially no one with influence. I made plans to use them as kindling in my fireplace as I rode away.

  
The funny thing about cities is that you only really know your way around if you’ve lived there for most of your life. And luckily, I was born in NYC, so I had no trouble finding my way to the bar. It took me about twenty minutes to get there, and while I was riding, it occurred to me that I didn’t actually know what Jenny’s sister actually looked like, or even her name. I couldn’t just go in and call for “Jenny’s sister”. I’d have to use the picture to see if anyone looked like her. When I finally arrived, I looked into the bar from outside to see if I could spot Jenny’s sister before going in. To my shock, when I peered through the storefront window, I could clearly see Jenny sitting on a bar stool, drinking and laughing like nothing had happened. I shoved the door open and pulled my fedora down to cover my face. If any crooks that I put away were in here, I didn’t want them to see me, or they might try to get a little revenge. The bar itself made me feel gross, and that was saying something. Low lighting, dirty floors, and thugs everywhere. In one corner, there was a group snorting smartie powder. I called the bartender over and asked for a shot of Fresca. While he was pouring it, I moved through the crowd over to Jenny.  
“Excuse me, are you Jenny Brannigan?”, I whispered.  
She stared at me like I had just asked if she was a Venusian. But then, she burst into laughter. Loud laughter, the kind that draws attention. I grabbed my shot with one hand and the girl’s arm with the other.  
“C’mon, you and I are getting out of here”, I ordered quietly.  
She put up no resistance. I could tell that she had been knocking back shots before I got there. She was shaking, her fingers moving in every direction. We got about two feet out the door before she started pulling away.  
“Hey look I’m not here to hurt you. I just-”. I didn’t get to finish my sentence.  
She ground her foot into my ankle, forcing me to release her. When she ran up the street, I dropped the shot glass and chased after her, which isn’t easy to do with a swollen ankle. I reached into my coat pocket and pulled out my pistol, a CSG X1 Stream Machine. Only this time, it wasn’t filled with water, but rather my own concoction. Cheeto dust, chocolate sauce, olive oil, and some other kitchen products. Not toxic, but slippery as hell. One good shot at her feet, and she slid all over the pavement, eventually going down. I grabbed her by the collar, not restraining myself at all, and shoved her up against the side of the building.  
“Alright, who the hell are you, and where is Jenny?”, I yelled.  
“I’m her sister and I don’t know where she is! Why do you think I’ve been drinking?”. I loosened my grip on her, but only slightly.  
“Lemme guess… identical twin?”. She nodded quickly.  
“Leela Brannigan, that's me. I know all about the kidnapping thing. Kaitlyn told me. But she also told me that if I tell my parents or the police we could all be in danger, and I trust her”.  
I sighed and let go of her. She dusted herself off indignantly, like she hadn’t just injured me and tried to run away.  
“Okay, first question: Why did you run?”, I asked.  
“I thought maybe Jenny had escaped and you were the kidnapper looking for her”, she explained.  
“Second question: if you’re her identical twin, why weren’t you sent away with her to Chicago?”, I questioned. She laughed bitterly.  
“My parents thought I’d give the school ‘a bad name’. Just because I had a few run-ins with the principal. But Jenny was deemed good enough to go, so now I'm stuck here on my own”. I wrote this all down on my notepad.  
“So I take it you were kind of resentful of your sister being sent away while you were stuck in this rat hole”. Again, a humorless giggle came from her mouth.  
“Damn straight I resented it, but not because I hate this place. In fact, I hate that stupid school. Wearing uniforms, having roommates, not being able to eat whenever you want? Not my kind of school. No, I just want my sister back”.  
This gave me a new thought.  
“You want her back? Bad enough to keep her from making it to the school?”, I questioned.  
She glared at me with such fury that if looks could kill I'd be dead. I’d apparently struck a nerve, a good thing too. When people get emotional, they make mistakes that can be used against them.  
“You think I'd kidnap my own sister? God, how much have **you** been drinking? We were closer than the Weasley Twins, and neither of us were particulate crazy about being split up, but I wouldn't do that to Jenny no matter how much I wanted to be with her. She was crazy about going that school. Unlike me, she always wanted to get out of this town, do something better, be in the high-life like some Disney Princess. I could never understand that. As far as I'm concerned, we’re already in the high life, what with mom and dad being loaded, but she didn't see it that way. That's the way we've always been with each other. One of the only things we have in common is our birthday, and yet we love each other to death. Neither of us could really understand **that** ”.  
She paused for a moment to bury her head in her hands. “Anyways, if going to a fancy boarding school was going to make her happy, then what kind of sister would I be to stop her? I would've gone with her, no matter how much I hated that school. But of course my parents got the final say”, she spat.  
I understood her frustration. Parents always did what they thought was best, but rarely did they ever do the best thing. I could tell genuine concern from acting, and this girl really did care about her sister. But my suspicions about her didn't waver. Love was a strong emotion and it could make people do crazy things, illegal things. Of course, under that logic, Joe could also be a suspect. Jenny’s affair with Ash had driven him to stalk them, so was kidnapping really a stretch? Speaking of which, I still needed to pay a visit to Ash and get his side of the story. I needed to do it quick too; who knows what the creep who took Jenny was doing to her? Leela’s mention of the boarding school reminded me of something Kaitlyn had said.  
“When I talked to Kaitlyn, she told me that she had called the school, and they said Jenny was there, safe and sound. Did you know that?”.  
“Yeah, Kaitlyn told me about that. I didn’t believe her until I called myself. Funny thing is, they wouldn’t let me talk to her, saying that ‘she didn’t want to talk right now’. That’s was BS for sure. Jenny always wants to talk with me. But I was too nervous to insist, so I just hung up”.  
I jotted it all down on my notepad. This was interesting info, but it didn’t help me. I needed a lead, and the only one I hadn’t explored was Ash Friar. But I didn't know where Ash lived, and I couldn't look him up online unless I knew his parents’ names. But there was somebody who might know, and she was standing right in front of me. I put a hand on Leela’s chin, pulling her head up to face me.  
“Leela, listen to me, this is very important: did Jenny ever mention a boy named Ash Friar?”.  
She thought for moment before shaking her head. From what I could tell about these two sisters’ relationship, Jenny keeping something from Leela was a bad sign.  
“How about Harlem? Did she ever go there?”.  
She jerked her head up to look at me after burying it in her arms again. Her expression showed me that I had rang a bell with her.  
“Funny you should say that. About two months ago she said that she and her friends had found this great ice cream place down there. ‘Mulligan’s, 154 5th Avenue’, she said. She went up there about once a week after school. Why? Was she doing something other than eating ice cream?”.  
I couldn't believe it. Unlike Joe, she really was completely clueless. I gave her a quick rundown of everything I knew. Normally, I'd leave out some details to try and see if she knew more than she was saying, but something in my gut told me that she had nothing to do with this. Curiously, she almost didn't believe me when I told her about Ash and the pictures.  
“ **My sister**? Making out with **him**? No way, not Jenny”, she sputtered. This interested me. After all, they say the camera never lies, and the picture of her making out with Ash was still fresh in my mind. I pulled it out of my bag and showed it to Leela. She almost looked disgusted when she saw the picture. I guess if I had a sister, I wouldn’t want to see her making out either.  
“No but… this is impossible”, she sputtered while handing the picture back to me. “What, she put all her time into school and ice cream?”, I asked sarcastically.  
I probably shouldn’t have said it like that, but I couldn’t help it. I cracked wise whenever I got stressed, and believe me, this was one hell of a stressful case.  
“No, it's not that…”, she started to say. But then she went silent. I huffed in frustration. Leela covered her face with one hand.  
“Look Jenny is going to kill me for telling you this”. I cut her off and roughly grabbed her arm, pulling her towards me.  
“If you don't tell me, she won't be around to kill you”.  
She pulled free from my grip and started pacing. Finally she looked me in the eye with the most serious expression she’d had since I met her.  
“It's not right for me to tell you because I don't know the full story. Talk to Kaitlyn. I'm surprised she didn't tell you all this from the beginning”.  
And with that, she shut her mouth for good. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that Kaitlyn was stonewalling me, but I was. She said that she and Jenny had a history. Was that a clue as to what was going on here? Could Kaitlyn herself be the kidnapper and maybe she was just sending me on a wild goose chase? I was kicking myself for not pressing the matter further when I had the opportunity. But there was no sense fretting about the past. Before leaving for good, I turned to Leela with one last question.  
“Hey, why aren't you in school?”. She grinned cynically.  
“You really think I care about taking an algebra exam with my sister missing?”.  
Good answer, I thought. After giving Leela my number, and assuring her that I'd find the creep who took her sister, I hightailed it outta there. I didn't go very far; just far enough to get out of her hearing range. I took out my cell phone and dialed up Kaitlyn, filled with frustration and questions. It took two rings before her voice started crackling in my ear.  
“Marion? What is it?”, she huffed.  
She sounded annoyed Maybe I'd disturbed her beauty rest. Whatever it was, I didn't care. “You have some explaining to do. I know you haven't been fully honest. Meet me in front of your dad’s office, ASAP, or…”.  
She hung up before I could finish my sentence. “Hello? **Hello**?”.  
Dammit! Kaitlyn was trying to give me the slip, but I knew better. I also knew that from here from here to the Upper East Side would take about 40 minutes by bike, and even I didn't have the stamina for that much peddling. So I left the bike with Leela, told her to deliver it to my school, ran into Delgado’s to break my $5, and high-tailed it to the nearest subway stop. Transit would take longer, but it was my best option. I just had to make sure to dodge the freaks and weirdos. Like I said, gotta love NYC.

  
My mind was racing faster than the track runners at school. What could Jenny have possibly done that was so secretive? And why would Kaitlyn know? It must be pretty bad if she was trying to cut out on the detective that **she** hired. In any case, she wasn't helping Jenny in the least. I silently begged the train to go faster, determined not to let Kaitlyn disappear on me. When I finally got to my stop, I ran so fast my gym teacher would've been proud. Of course, by the time I reached Kaitlyn’s house, I reeked of sweat and greasy food from the subway. Combine that with my worn-out outfit, I didn't exactly look like the kind of person who was set to visit the mayor. But bad shoes weren't going to weaken my resolve. I marched to the front door mustering all my courage. Inside my stomach was doing flip flops, and I think if I had stayed on the lawn just a second longer, I would've puked all over the azaleas. I grabbed the door knocker and gave it three hard raps. The people inside really took their time getting to the door. I could picture Kaitlyn frantically telling her mom not to open the door and I chuckled. When the door finally opened, who came out but the **mayor himself**. I straightened my posture, determined not to be intimidated by some glorified bigwig.  
“Ah, hello. Marian is it? My daughter can’t come out right now, but if you’d like to…”, he started to say.  
I cut him off.  
“With all due respect Mr. Mayor, I need to see Kaitlyn _now_. It's urgent”.  
He stared at me, trying to figure out why I had come marching up to his door, stinking like trash and demanding to see his daughter.  
“Um, I'll see if she's feeling better. Just a moment”.  
Kaitlyn was sick all of a sudden? Yeah right. Moments later I saw her hobbling down the stairs like she had broken her leg. It took a lot of self control not to roll my eyes.  
“Hello Marian. Is something wrong?”, she asked sweetly.  
“Just need to ask you a few questions”, I replied through gritted teeth.  
“Perhaps you'd be more comfortable talking _outside_ ”.  
She warily stepped out of the house, ridiculous limp and all.  
“I'll leave you two girls to… chat”, said her father before closing the door. And that's when it all went to hell.  


  
As soon as her father wasn't watching, Kaitlyn cut the sick act and turned cold as a freezer.  
“What do you want, Marian? I told you everything I know”, she spat at me.  
“Yeah right. Look, I don't know what’s going on, but I talked to Leela, A.K.A. Jenny’s twin sister, and she said there was something you weren't telling me. So spill the beans!”.  
As soon as I said Leela’s name, the blood drained from Kaitlyn’s face.  
“You… talked to Leela?”, she sputtered.  
“Yeah, and I…”.  
I didn't get to finish my sentence before she shoved me, and started to run like there was no tomorrow. But I wouldn't let her get away that easily; I grabbed her leg and pulled her towards me. She flailed her arms before coming crashing down on me. I grabbed her arms and pinned them behind her back while flipping over so I was on top of her. She was kicking and shaking, begging me to let go. It was a miracle her father hadn't heard us and come to her aid.  
“Listen to me, Kaitlyn! I'll let you go if you promise to tell me the **whole** truth. Deal?”.  
She went still and silent, which I could only hope was a sign of defeat.  
“Alright, I'll tell you. But if you tell this to anyone else, I swear to god…”.  
She didn't get up, but rather just sat upon the ground, not even bothering to dust herself off. I could tell she was feeling miserable, yet relieved, like she had been waiting to tell someone this terrible secret for a long time.  
“I was the first”, she whimpered. That wasn’t helpful. The first what? “Can you elaborate on that?”.  
“I was the first”, she repeated. “Before Ash, before Joe, there was me”.  
Suddenly, it all made sense. When Kaitlyn said she and Jenny had a history, I didn’t think she had meant something so personal.  
“So you and Jenny were in a relationship?”.  
It was an obvious question, sure. But I had to be sure before making any conclusions. She nodded weakly.  
“It was really good for a while, you know? When Jenny and I got together, we floated to cloud nine. I remember her laugh, and the way it made me feel so good. The way she would always stand up to jerks. The way she would hug me when I couldn’t handle life”.  
She didn’t smile or cry. Her face was absolutely blank. If we’d been playing poker, she would have taken home the whole pot.  
“I hate to ask but… what happened?”.  
Though I couldn’t see it, I knew that had struck a chord. I wasn’t trying to upset her, but there’s no way to ask something so personal without doing so. Her head rose slowly. She wasn’t crying, she wasn’t yelling, but I knew inside she was raging. It was a tranquil fury, the worst kind of all.  
“You want to know what happened to us?”, Kaitlyn said in barely a whisper.  
“What happened was that Jenny’s folks hired a bunch of quacks to convince her that she had a sickness, that she needed to be ‘cured’. I told her not to believe them, but she wouldn’t listen, and just like that I became the enemy. She broke up with me and cut off contact. The last time I even spoke to her was months ago when she asked me to steal the pictures from Joe”.  
Poor girl. Granted, I’d heard the same sad tale a thousand times over. Somebody felt they were in heaven only to have reality coming crashing down on them. But with Kaitlyn, it was different. Publicly she was confident, strong, and unfeeling. I used to call it being icy, but now I knew it was just a front, a shield build to protect her from anymore wrongdoing. I guess it goes to show that nobody is immune to that damn sickness we call heartbreak.  
“So her parents have ‘doctors’ convince her she sick, she believes them, and then… what? They ‘cure’ her?”, I wondered out loud.  
I’d heard of things like this happening to kids, but I’d never known somebody who tried it before. The process was unfamiliar to me.  
“That’s what she told me. She said that the doctors were going to make her ‘better’, and that from now on she was going to be as straight as a line. But she never told me exactly what they did. God, they could’ve lobotomized her for all I know. She even suggested I start going to my own sessions, as if”.  
“Did Leela know about this? She seemed surprise that Jenny would even kiss a guy, much less date one”, I asked.  
“No, their parent’s made up some half-ass excuse to tell Leela. I guess they thought the truth would be too shocking for their poor baby. But Jenny told Leela about us way before her parents found out”.  
Figures. After all, Leela and Jenny were like two peas in a pod. The question is, did the pod get cramped when a third person moved in? I wrote furiously on my notepad, trying to summarize this conversation. I flipped to a page full of working theories. So far, it read like this:

Joe mad about affair. Kidnapped Jenny?  
Leela missed her sister, kidnapped her?  
Kaitlyn angry about breakup, kidnapped Jenny?  
Leela jealous of Jenny dating? Kidnapped her?  
Ash- need more research

I really did need to find Ash. If Kaitlyn didn’t know where he lived, I wouldn't know what to do.  
“Kaitlyn, please tell me you know something about Ash Friar”, I pleaded.  
“I'm at a loss here”. She sighed.  
“I knew you were going to ask that. If you want to know his address, he doesn't have one. He's homeless”.  
This was a shock. A rich girl like Jenny with a homeless kid? I couldn't even imagine how'd they’d met. In any case, this complicated things. New York City is a huge place! How could I possibly find him if he didn't even have an address?  
“Please, you have to know something more than that. Anything”, I begged her.  
“There was one thing. That place that she said she was going to every week, Mulligan’s, it really exists. I looked it up. You might try there”.  
It wasn't much, but I wasn't complaining.  
“Thanks, Kaitlyn. I'll find Jenny, alive and well. Don't worry”, I assured her.  
She nodded, but couldn't meet my gaze. I guess the whole spilling of secrets had made her uncomfortable, and frankly, I didn't blame her. I headed out, notebook in hand, towards this Mulligan’s place, wherever it was.


End file.
